Monday, February 11, 2013

Groundhogs Day

Okay, okay, so Groundhogs Day was last week.  Sorry.  I'm a smidge late.  But, as I learned, kids don't really know when the day is anyway and enjoy a fun craft and learning about groundhogs any time.  Trust me.

I found this super cute (and even easier) idea on pinterest and knew my kids would love it. 

Before we tackeled the project, I thought we'd talk about groundhogs a little bit and watch a little Punxsutawney Phil.  Sounds easy enough, right?  Well, it wasn't quite that easy due to my lack of preparation.  I was looking up videos on YouTube to watch and came across quite a few strange ones before we finally settled on a couple that actually worked for us.  If I'd planned ahead, I would have gotten a couple books from the library and pre-found a good video to watch (yes, all the finding of strange videos I did with my kids...good news, they thought it was pretty funny).  Oh well, there's always next year.

These were our three favorites:

1. This one is video of a groundhog poking out of his den.  I thought it would have a narrator telling us things about groundhogs, but it didn't.  That didn't matter to my kids at all.  They did their own narrating.  "Oh, he's so cute."  "Is that a bird?"  "He's adorable, what's he doing now?"

2. Then we watched a couple of Punxsutawney Phil trying to find a short one that was actually of this year and we came across this one.  I think I would have rather found one that told about how Phil came to be and described the process (which my kids thought was cool, but strange), maybe I'll find something next year (if you know of a good video or book, let me know!).

3.  Last we looked for a short educational video about groundhogs and ended up watching one that I can't find today.  It was very short, but did have a couple of fun pieces of information, for example, do you know how much dirt a groundhog displaces while digging (I didn't and it's pretty amazing)?  While looking I found this one which is a much better video (don't worry, it also tells you how much dirt they move...).  We'll have to watch it next year.

After watching all these video's I felt we were ready to tackle our project.  We did it over a few days and this is how they ended up.


It's interesting how much of my kids personalities comes out in their art.  They sometimes end up with quite a few similarities, but they're still different enough that I can always tell whose they are.  Especially Ben's.  His den not only has an arcade game, but a dinosaur skeleton hanging on the wall.   Because, you know, no den is complete without some really good wall art.


The projects are new for us and although they do add a chunk of time to our days, my kids and I are really enjoying them. 

Where is your favorite place to find craft/project inspiration?

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